Oscar contenders

Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 10, 2013. Click through to see the leading contenders in the top categories.

Gabriel Bouys/AFP / Getty Images

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The coming Oscar race could pit FDR against Lincoln, both competing with Alfred Hitchcock for best actor honors. That would be, respectively, Bill Murray, Daniel Day-Lewis and Anthony Hopkins losing themselves in their larger-than-life roles.

For a movie year that started sluggishly, it sure has picked up. Fall favorites “Cloud Atlas” and “The Master” have been replaced by robust contenders such as “Lincoln” and “Life of Pi.”

So many men have turned in astonishing performances it is difficult to narrow the actor categories to five each. Nominees in the actress division are being chosen from a smaller pool.

Many will be receiving their first nomination. But Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington and Sally Field each could be chasing a third Oscar, which would put them in rarefied company.

Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 10. Click through to see the leading contenders in the top categories.

Words by Ruthe Stein, San Francisco Chronicle movie correspondent

Gabriel Bouys/AFP / Getty Images

1of42

The coming Oscar race could pit FDR against Lincoln, both competing with Alfred Hitchcock for best actor honors. That would be, respectively, Bill Murray, Daniel Day-Lewis and Anthony Hopkins losing themselves in their larger-than-life roles.

For a movie year that started sluggishly, it sure has picked up. Fall favorites “Cloud Atlas” and “The Master” have been replaced by robust contenders such as “Lincoln” and “Life of Pi.”

So many men have turned in astonishing performances it is difficult to narrow the actor categories to five each. Nominees in the actress division are being chosen from a smaller pool.

Many will be receiving their first nomination. But Day-Lewis, Denzel Washington and Sally Field each could be chasing a third Oscar, which would put them in rarefied company.

Academy Award nominations will be announced Jan. 10. Click through to see the leading contenders in the top categories.